


A Little Solidarity

by SingingInTheRaiin



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: Babysitting, Gen, Jon is surprisingly good with kids, Jon is terrible at figuring out peoples' ages, Jon will NOT teach gender norms to a young impressionable child, M/M, Season 1, not really spoilers but does include some info from the latest episode, talking about ice-cream
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-05
Updated: 2020-04-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 05:07:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23499502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SingingInTheRaiin/pseuds/SingingInTheRaiin
Summary: Jon ends up getting himself into a position of being the babysitter for the kid next door. When he has to take the kid to work with him, the kid decides that Jon and Martin must be soulmates and wants to get them together.
Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan Sims
Comments: 32
Kudos: 310





	A Little Solidarity

Jon looked up from his book in surprise when he heard a knock at the door. Not because it was late or anything, in fact it was only eleven in the morning, but because he wasn’t expecting anyone (he was never expecting anyone). He got up and made his way to the door, but when he glanced through the peephole, he didn’t see anyone. Maybe it had been a package delivery, and he’d just forgotten that he’d ordered something? (That wouldn’t be the most unusual occurrence for him).

He opened the door, and it took him a moment to understand what he was looking at. A little kid, named Paul if Jon remembered correctly, who lived in the flat next to his. “Er, hello.” The kid seemed old enough to know if he knocked on the wrong door, and besides that, he was already pushing his way past Jon and into the flat, so…

Jon turned around to face the kid, and watched as the boy reached into his pocket and pulled out two little figures that he held up. (Jon ignored the fact that he didn’t even need to lean over to get a better look at the objects. He wasn’t short, the boy was probably just tall for a kid. Yeah, that made sense). “Do you know what these are called?” Jon blinked a few times in confusion, and the kid let out a sigh of disappointment as his arms dropped. “I just want to know their names. My mum found them for me at a yardsale, and they didn’t come in their packaging.”

Even though there was absolutely no reason for Jon to care about any of this, he found himself offering, “Perhaps we could look it up?”

The hope that appeared in his eyes told Jon that he’d done the right thing. “Really? I tried to, but I couldn’t find anything.”

Jon shrugged one shoulder. “I am actually a researcher for a living, you know.” Well, that wasn’t strictly true, seeing as how he’d been promoted to Head Archivist a few months ago already, but in his heart, he still felt more like a researcher.

The kid shook his head, and looked amazed. “I didn’t know that. That’s so cool!”

Jon shifted uncomfortably on his feet at the adoration on the boy’s face. He hadn’t realized that research was considered ‘cool’ by children. “Right, yes, then I’ll just…” he trailed off as he ducked into his bedroom to grab his laptop, and then returned to the living room. He sat down on the couch and put the laptop on the coffee table so that the kid could sit on the couch and see the screen too. He opened up a google page, and then stopped to look at the little figures, which were helpfully put down on the table as well. “Alright, so you don’t know their names, but is there anything else that you do know about them?”

The boy nodded earnestly. “Yeah, they’re pokemon!”

Jon squinted his eyes as he inspected the figurines. They didn’t look like any of the pokemon he vaguely remembered from his childhood. “I didn’t realize pokemon were still a thing.”

The boy laughed. “Yeah, they’re super awesome! But I don’t recognize these ones.”

Jon cleared his throat, eager to move past the mopeyness that started. “That’s excellent work,” he complimented the kid. “A very important part of research is looking at what you already know, rather than trying to figure out what you don’t know.” He didn’t know how to react to the way the kid beamed up at him, so Jon just cleared his throat again, and started typing. He quickly found a list of all the current pokemon. “It looks like there’s uh about 800 total? But there’s pictures next to all of them, so it shouldn’t take too long to…” The pictures were all rather small, and even with his glasses he had trouble making out any details of the tiny images. The kid wore glasses as well, and didn’t seem to be having any better luck. “We’ll just have to click on each one until we find the one that matches.”

The kid shook his head. “These guys look like dragons. Can you look at only dragon types?”  
“There are different types? Nevermind, it doesn’t matter, I’ll just do this,” he said as he opened the find function and typed in dragon. “That narrowed it down to forty-nine. That seems much more doable.” And it meant that Jon wouldn’t lose an entire afternoon doing this. With any luck, they’d quickly find the two they were looking for, and then the kid could be on his way.

,,,

After looking at every dragon pokemon, and then going back and looking at all 800 others, Jon had to gently suggest to the kid that maybe they weren’t looking for a pokemon after all. His shoulders fell as he slumped back against the couch. “But I could’ve sworn that they were.” He pulled his knees up to his chest, and Jon didn’t even bother to tell him not to put his shoes on the couch. “Well, thanks for trying anyways.”

There was no way that Jon could let the kid leave while he still looked so dejected. “Hey, the internet is a big place. I’m sure we’ll find something.”

“Can we take a snack break before we keep going?”

That question made Jon uncomfortably aware of the fact that he hadn’t even eaten breakfast that morning, since he’d meant to do it after reading a single chapter of his book, but had then ended up getting too drawn in to stop. Which also meant that the kid hadn’t had anything to eat in at least- Jon nearly choked when he saw his watch. They’d been at this for three hours already? How was that even possible? Did little kids die if they didn’t get food on time? Was Jon now responsible for killing an innocent child who just wanted to do some research?

Maybe he could see the way that Jon was starting to freak out, because he popped up and grabbed Jon’s hand to pull him into his own kitchen. “My mum said that you probably live off of sticks, but hopefully you’ve got some other snacks too.”

“Sticks?” Jon asked in confusion.

The kid nodded and answered absent-mindedly as he started searching Jon’s kitchen. “Yeah, she said you’ve always got a stick up your bum, and how would it get there if you didn’t eat them? But I don’t see any sticks in here.” While Jon tried to figure out if there was any appropriate way to respond to that, the kid pulled himself up onto the counter to search through the higher cabinets. “Why’re these all empty?”

Jon frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. “Because I don’t like to climb on my counter, but that’s the only way to reach those shelves.” He scowled at the thought that he had the same struggles as a kid who was only like, what, fourteen or fifteen? “How old are you?” he asked as the kid hopped back down to the floor.

The kid glanced over his shoulder and then went back to rifling through the fridge. “I’m seven.” Oh. Apparently Jon was just terrible at guessing peoples’ ages. Probably because his own age always threw everyone off. Before he could ask anything else, the kid made a triumphant noise as he pulled two pudding cups out of Jon’s fridge. “Aha! Real snacks. Now let’s get back to the research!”

,,,

Some amount of time later, there was a frantic sounding knock at the door, and Jon glanced at the kid, who just shrugged once before focusing back on the episode of the show he and Jon had started watching. Jon made his way to the door and pulled it open. “Oh, Mr. Sims, you wouldn’t happen to have seen Rob today, have you?”

Jon blinked a few times. “Who?”

The man in the hallway frowned. “Our son. We left him home alone just for today because our normal sitter moved away and we’re still looking for a new one, but now we can’t find him anywhere, and-”

“Dad!” The kid- or Rob, apparently, (and Jon mentally winced at the idea that he hadn’t even known the name of the person he’d spent all day with. Good thing he’d never actually tried to say the kid’s name out loud, or that would have been awkward), hurried over to the doorway and launched himself into his father’s arms. “I came over earlier and Jon tried to help me figure out the name of those toys mum got me the other day, and then we were just hangin’ out.”

Rob’s father held his son tightly as he narrowed his eyes at Jon. “And do you often ‘hang out’ with young children?”

Clearly the man was suspicious about something, though Jon couldn’t think of anything particularly bad that could be associated with teaching young people to appreciate the art of research. He just shrugged. “I watch over my cousin when his parents are unable to do so, if that’s what you mean.”

The man looked at Rob. “And you’re alright?”

Rob laughed as he nodded. “Yeah! And me an’ Jon were just watching this awesome show about animals and stuff. You should come watch with us!”

There was a long pause as the man stared scrutinizingly at Jon, and then he finally sighed. “Only if Jon is alright with it.”

“Sure. We were in the middle of an episode, so it only makes sense to finish it.” 

The man nodded. “I just need to text my husband to let him know that we found Rob. And thank you for watching him today.”

“Sure, no problem.” Then they ended up watching the rest of the episode in what would have been an awkward silence if Rob hadn’t kept blurting out all of his reactions and questions. Jon was happy to answer anything he knew. Then when it was over, the kid left with his father, and Jon closed the door behind them. He shook his head as he returned to the couch. What a strange day.

,,,

When his office door opened, Jon didn’t even bother to glance up, but once he heard someone clearing their throat, he tore his eyes away from the fascinating book about ghosts that supposedly existed in the North East United States. He saw Martin standing there, and he wasn’t holding a cup of tea. “Hey, Jon.” He clasped his hands behind his back, and shuffled around awkwardly for a few seconds before continuing. “I was just wondering if- well, the rest of us are heading to a pub after work today, and I thought that maybe you’d like to- perhaps you’d be interested in-”

Jon couldn’t stop himself from frowning. He knew that the three assistants had all been hanging out rather frequently outside of work, he didn’t need any kind of pity invite to join them now, after months of being left out. Luckily, he already had a good reason to beg out. “Sorry, but I can’t. I’m babysitting tonight.” 

Friday nights were date nights for Austin and Bear, Rob’s parents, and so for the past few weeks, Jon had become Rob’s sitter on Friday nights and weekends during the day. Rob was easy enough to entertain, and it earned him the gratitude and respect of his neighbors, which is something that almost never happened. 

Martin’s shoulders slumped down, and he nodded once. “Right, I should’ve- I mean- Sorry for bothering you. I’ll just- just go now.” He shuffled out of the office, and Jon stared after him, wondering why he felt weirdly guilty. But then he returned to what he’d been doing, and quickly forgot about the whole strange encounter.

,,,

Jon leapt over the couch in an attempt to stop Rob in his tracks. “And the mighty dragon approaches the knight!” 

Rob shrieked with laughter as he dropped down and rolled out of Jon’s reach. “You’ll never catch me!”

Jon let the boy slip out of reach, and then waited, giving the boy an opportunity to do something. Rob held on tightly to the old wooden cane they’d found in the back of Jon’s closet, and then he swung it towards Jon, arms trembling from the weight of it. “Alas, you got me!” Jon reached up to clutch dramatically at his heart, and then staggered back several steps before collapsing down onto the couch. “The beast has been slain, and the princess has been rescued.”

Rob grinned as he jumped onto the couch with enough force to push Jon up slightly. After they both caught their breath, Rob suddenly averted his gaze. “Jon? Would it be okay- I mean, am I allowed to- what if I want to- can I be the princess?”

Jon shrugged. “Sure.”

Rob looked stunned by that answer, but then he smiled. “If I’m the princess, can I still be a knight with a sword that slays dragons?”

“Naturally.” 

Rob nodded. “Good.” After a few minutes of settling down from their game, Rob scooted closer to Jon. “You’re my favorite babysitter,” he announced.

Jon chuckled. “Well, I don’t have many charges to compare you to, but I rather like you as well.” If his grandmother could see him now, she’d surely be shocked, considering how many times she’d told him that he’d be as useless with children as all the other men in their family. Well, he’d certainly proved her wrong, between Jon’s cousin and Rob.

,,,

Jon was just locking the front door behind him when the door to the flat next door burst open. “Oh, Jon, thank god you’re still here! Rob’s school just cancelled with a last minute snow day, and we didn’t have any plans in place for this, and our boss would never let us bring him to work and…” Austin trailed off when he saw the briefcase satchel hanging by Jon’s hip, and his face drooped. “Oh, you’re on your way to work too. Of course. Sorry, we’ll just- we’ll figure something out.”

Oh, Jon just knew that he was going to end up regretting this, but he couldn’t just leave his neighbors in a pinch. “Well I could always take him to work with me. I’m the head of my department so I don’t think I’d get in trouble for it.”

Austin looked so relieved. “Oh, thank you so much. You’re a lifesaver.”

And that’s how Jon ended up making his way to the Institute holding the hand of a seven year old, to make sure that the boy didn’t wander away in the early morning foot traffic. Luckily they were the first ones in the archives, just like usual, so Jon was able to set Rob up with some coloring books and a box of toys, and he cordoned off a section of his desk with a chain of paperclips, for Rob to keep his things in. 

Then Jon got to work, and patiently responded whenever Rob tried to talk to him. He even went to the staff room kitchen to make Rob a cup of hot chocolate, since it was chilly in the basement when there was so much snow outside. Eventually, the office door swung open, and Martin walked in with morning tea. “Hey, I brought…” He trailed off, and when Jon looked up to see what was wrong, he could see how red Martin’s face had turned. “Do you- do you have a kid?”

“Jon’s my babysitter,” Rob helpfully piped in.

Martin blinked a few times. “Oh. Oh! So you really weren’t just using it as an excuse to get out of spending time with us?” He set the mug down on the coaster on Jon’s desk, and then stood awkwardly in front of Rob. “I’m Martin.”  
Rob’s eyes widened, and then lit up mischievously. “You’re Martin? Jon talks about you all the time.”

“What? I do not!” Jon sputtered. 

Martin’s eyes widened. “He does? What- what does he say?”

Jon frowned. “I’m right here, you know!” 

Rob completely ignored him as he looked up at Martin. “Jon said that you’re the nicest person here, and that you always bring him tea, and that you’re a good researcher and that- and that you always listen to him when he talks about boring stuff for a while!” 

Jon shook his head, nonplussed. “I’ve never said any of that,” he insisted. Who was Martin going to believe, his boss or some random kid he’d never even met before today? The answer to that seemed obvious, but for some reason, Martin didn’t seem to do the obvious thing. 

He turned to look at Jon with one eyebrow raised up. “Is all of that true? I thought- I thought you thought that I- I mean, I heard that tape you recorded where you said that I’m useless, and I thought you- I mean-”

Jon let out a heavy sigh. “Look, I don’t- I don’t think that you’re useless, Martin. It’s just- you have to understand that this position brings with it a lot of pressure, and I need to make sure that I impress Elias, and- and frankly I have no idea how to act around you because you’re too nice, and I don’t- I mean, no one else here is nice!”  
Martin furrowed his eyebrows. “Sasha and Tim are nice.”

Jon shook his head. “It’s not the same. They’re nice because they could be mean instead, but you’re just… nice.”

“That doesn’t even make sense, Jon.”

Rob cleared his throat to draw both adults’ attention back to him. “Jon also said that he likes your hair and thinks you’re really good at drawing dinosaurs and sharks.” 

He looked so proud of himself for that, but Martin’s face only showed horrified realization. “You… you never said any of that, did you?”

Jon shook his head. “No.” 

Martin abruptly turned and hurried out of the office, and he didn’t even bother to mumble out some kind of excuse. Jon let out a tired sigh, and then looked over at Rob. “What was that all about?”

Rob shrugged. “He’s your soulmate. I can tell.”

“You’re fired,” Jon grumbled. 

Rob shrugged again as he returned to his coloring. “I wasn’t getting paid anyways.”  
Jon tried to get back to work, but everytime he started to look at something else, his mind would flash to that single instant where Martin had looked so obviously hurt, and Jon would get distracted all over again. It was when he went to take a sip of tea and found that it was made perfectly, just like always, that he abruptly shoved his chair back and stood up. “Stay here. I need to go do something.” Rob gave a nod of agreement, and Jon sped out of his office.

It was immediately obvious that Martin wasn’t at his desk, so Jon went to Sasha instead. Between her and Tim, she seemed far less likely to try and make fun of him for all of this. “You wouldn’t happen to have seen Martin around today, would you?”

Sasha leaned back in her seat and arched one eyebrow. “Might’ve. What’s it to you?” 

“I just need to talk to him. It’s important.”

Sasha stared at him long enough that it felt like her eyes were burning a hole right through his soul, and then she gave him a small smile. “He was in the kitchen last I saw.” Jon started to turn away, but Sasha wasn’t done speaking yet. “And Jon… Be gentle. I know that you’re capable of not being a complete ass all of the time.”

Jon didn’t acknowledge that last part, and just made his way to the staff kitchen. Sure enough, Martin was in there, sitting in the giant bean bag chair that Tim had snuck into the archives at some point. Jon cleared his throat, and then moved to stand in front of Martin. “Look, I’m sorry for the way I’ve acted towards you since we got down here. And even if Rob was making all that stuff up, he only knew about you at all because I do probably talk about you more than I should,” he admitted.

“Yeah? And what do you talk about?” Martin’s voice was defensive, as he was clearly already prepared to be further insulted. 

Jon sighed, and took a small step back. “I talk about how you’ve been a major distraction to me since our first day working together because it’s so hard to stop looking at you. About how you’re the nicest person here, and how you have a gift for making everyone’s perfect cup of tea. About how you have a certain shirt that really brings out the color of yours eyes, and how you have this one jumper that’s the ugliest thing in existence but you always look so happy when you wear it. About how you always try to help everyone, and that scares me, because I’m such a selfish man. And- and I’m sure that you are really good at drawing dinosaurs and sharks,” he added, the corner of his mouth curving up.

Martin let out what seemed to be an involuntary snort of amusement, and then he stood up. Even though he was (much, much) taller than Jon, it never felt like Martin towered over him. “It’s always so hard to figure out what you’re thinking, but I think- I think I should just be honest with my feelings right now.” He took a deep breath in, then slowly let it out. “The truth is that- is that I’ve liked you ever since my birthday.” Then he immediately squeezed his eyes shut and turned away, like if he didn’t look at Jon then he wouldn’t have to worry about getting rejected.

Jon frowned. “What happened on your birthday?”

Martin slowly opened his eyes again, and stared at Jon in disbelief. “Seriously?” When Jon just shrugged, Martin sighed, but there was a fond smile tugging at his lips. “We all went out to ice-cream, including you. And you talked about eggs and mayonnaise.”

Jon wrinkled his nose. “And that made you like me?”

For some reason, that only made Martin look at him even more fondly. “You could’ve been talking about anything, honestly. But you just sounded so passionate. I’d never heard you like that before. It was- it was nice.”

“Oh.” Jon gulped, and he and Martin just stared at each other for a few long seconds. “So you like ice-cream, then?”

Martin slowly nodded. “Yeah?”

“Would you like to get some together? After work, I mean. Er, well, after I drop off Rob at home, first. And then- and then we could get ice-cream?” 

When there was no immediate response, Jon started to worry that he’d just messed up horribly, and that Martin hadn’t meant that he  _ liked  _ him liked him, but then Martin let out a little laugh that sounded wonderful to Jon’s ears. “You want to get ice-cream? Now? When there’s almost a foot of snow outside?”

“Right, I didn’t- we don’t have to-”

“I’d love to,” Martin interrupted. “Even if you do get the old man flavor again.”

Jon rolled his eyes, and felt the way his cheeks were heating up. “Right, good then.” He didn’t really know what else to say, so he turned to go, but then Martin reached out to gently grab one of Jon’s hands, and Jon looked back to see what Martin wanted. “Is there something else?”

Martin shook his head, but he still didn’t let go of Jon’s hand. “I just- just wanted to see if this is alright?”

Jon thought about it for a few seconds, and decided that he did actually enjoy holding hands with Martin, so he nodded. “Yeah, this is- this is nice.” They stayed like that for a little while longer, and then Jon pulled away so that he could actually get back to work. “Meet at my place around seven? There’s a little grocery store down the street where we can get ice-cream. Unfortunately, I don’t think any of the ice-cream parlors are open this time of year.”

Martin nodded. “I can’t wait.” And then he gave Jon this dopey little smile that Jon had no choice but to smile back at before he left the room. 

As he stepped out of the kitchen, he was immediately ambushed by Rob. “Does this mean that I get to have ice-cream too?” the boy asked excitedly.

Jon rolled his eyes. “You’re a little menace.”

“But you wouldn’t have asked Martin to ice-cream without me,” he pointed out in far too smug a tone for a seven year old. Had he learned that from Jon? 

Jon sighed, and then reached out to ruffle Rob’s hair. “Fine, you can get ice-cream too. But don’t tell your parents.”

“I won’t, I promise!” Then he skipped back to Jon’s office, and Jon had to stop himself from doing the same. It was tempting to move with a bounce in his step, though, since at the moment he felt lighter than ever. 


End file.
